Wire repairing and tightening means



March 31, 1959 B. L. MALLORY WIRE REPAIRING AND TIGHTENING MEANS FiledJan. 5, 1956 INVENTOR. Bow/WE Z. .MALLORY BY WW 2,879,808 WIRE REPAIRINGAND TIGHTENING MEANS Bonnie L. Mallory, Huntington Woods, Mich.

Application January 3, 1956, Serial No. 556,972

3 Claims. (Cl. 140-1235 This invention is an improved means primarilyintended for reconditioning and repairing wire fences, although otherapplications of the invention will be obvious from this disclosure.

Fence wires invariably stretch and become slack, and sometimes breakfrom one cause or another, not infrequently during cold weather becauseof the accumulation of ice or snow thereon, especially when subjected toheavy winds. Keeping wire fences in repair is highly important if thefences are to properly serve their purpose, and heretofore the task hasbeen a time consuming and relatively expensive one, especially whereconsiderable fencing is involved, as on large argricultural and stockfarms and ranches.

The primary purpose of my invention is to provide a wire fence repairingmeansthatwill minimize the trouble and expense of maintaining wirefences in proper condition, and which is applicable to fences comprisingsingle wire strands, wire mesh, or barbed wire.

Another object is to provide a wire tightener that is simple, cheap andeffective, and that is capable of being operated by means of a simpletool to produce and lock,

a reverse bend or kink in the wire, such as will take up the slack andthus render the wire taut, and which, in the operation of applying it,automatically and securely attaches itself to the wire. Hence, myinvention obviates the use of the conventional wire pullng equipment andmakes it unnecessary to disturb the connections between the wire andfence posts or other supports.

With respect to the mending of broken wires, I propose to provide alongwith the tightener very simple means, desirably consisting of bite typecouplers, for easily and quickly joining the ends of a splicing wire tothe separated ends of a broken wire, while the wires are in slackcondition, which circumstance greatly facilitates the operation; and,with the ends of the broken wire connected in this way, one of theaforesaid tighteners is applied to one of the wires-for instance, thesplicing wireand the tightener operated in the manner above described toremove the slack and cause the bite type couplers to increase their holdupon the wires.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein like parts are designated by likereference characters throughout the several views,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my improved wire tightener;

Fig. 2 and 3 are similar views, respectively, of the tool for operatingthe wire tightener, and of one of the bite type couplers;

Fig. 4 is a view illustrating the manner in which the ends of a splicingwire are initially connected to the separated ends of a broken wire bymeans of two bite type couplers, and with the wire tightener applied tothe splicing wire;

Fig. 5 is a view, similar to Fig. 4, showing the condition United StatesPatent 0 "ice of the parts after the tightener has been operated and therepair completed, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a bite type coupler for use with barbedwire.

The wire tightener, designated generally by the reference numeral 1,includes a body portion 2. Reversely arranged hooks 3 and 4 extendlaterally in the same direction from the opposite ends of the bodyportion, and members having laterally extending abutments, or, morelimitedly and as illustrated, headed studsS and 6 are carried by andproject from the body portion in the same general direction as the hooks3 and 4, each member or stud being located adjacent the open side ornotch of one of the hooks.

. The tightenerwhich I have just described is desirably made from stripmetal, with the body portion 2 in the form of a flat plate. In theproduction of the tightener, the hooks 3 and 4 are punched from thestrip and then turned laterally; and the studs 5 and 6 are desirablyriveted in holes in the body portion 2. It is to be observed that theouter edges of the hooks 3 and 4 diverge with respect to the plane ofthe body portion toward the open ends of the hooks, and this is for apurpose that will presently appear. a

Each of the bite type couplers shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 is designatedgenerally by the reference numeral 10, and it consists of a flat plateor disc of sheet metal that is provided with so-called terminal eyes 11,and intermediate eyes 12, said eyes consisting of holes that are punchedor otherwise formed in the plate or disc.

The tool for operating the wire tightener is designated 15 and it isdesirably constructed from a single piece of strap metal, offset at 16between its ends, to define a head 17 and a handle 18. Studs 19 and 20,similar to the studs 5 and 6 of the tightener, are riveted in the head17 and extend laterally therefrom and the studs are spaced apart adistance substantially equal to the length of the body portion 2 of thetightener.

Although it is reasonable to suppose that the wire tightener will beused more frequently for taking up slack in unbroken wires, I haveillustrated it in Figs. 4 and 5 as used in mending a broken wire.Obviously, the manner of using the tightener will be the same in bothinstances. In the views just referred to, the sections of a broken wire,on opposite sides of a gap therein, are designated 22, and a splicingwire, of a length somewhat greater than that of the gap, is designated24. Each end of the splicing wire 24 is first extended through aterminal eye 11 of the correspondng coupler 10 and a hook 25 is formedin the wire and the end thereof is passed in a reverse direction throughone of the intermediate eyes 12 of the coupler. In like manner, the endof each section 22 of the broken wire is passed through the otherterminal eye of the appropriate coupler and formed into a hook 26, theend of which is then passed through the other intermediate eyes 12 ofthe coupler. A pair of pliers or other suitable implement may be usedfor forming the hooks 25 and 26.

The operation of inserting the splicing wire is performed while there isenough slack in the broken wire to make the work easy. After the ends ofthe broken wire are thus initially connected together, a wire tightener1 is engaged with one of the wires-the splicing Wire, as presentlyillustrated. Either before or after the tightener is applied to thewire, it is engaged with the tool 15 by inserting the body portion 2 ofthe fastener between the studs 19 and 20 of the tool, in the mannershown in Fig. 4. In the initial position of the tightener, the wirepasses between the studs 5 and 6 and through the open ends of the hooks3 and 4. Now by turning the tightener 1 in the plane of its body portion2, by swinging the handle 18 of the tool 15 in the direction indicatedby the arrow in Fig. 4, substantially through a reverse bend .or.kink'i's formed in the splicing wire (as illustrated in Fig. 5), theadjacent portions of the wire during such operation traversing theinclined edges of the hooks 3 and 4 and then overriding the ends of thehooks and finally coming to-rest within the notches of the hooks whenthe hold on the tool is relaxed. The tightener thus becomes securelyfastened to the wire in a position to maintain the wire taut, afterwhichthe tool may be easily and quickly detached from the tightener.

In the course of this operation, the couplers assume acute angularrelation to the connected wires and take a hold thereon which increasesin intensity as the wire is tightened and which is very effective insecuring the ends of the wires to one another and against slipping withrespect to thecouplers.

When using the invention in connection with barbed wire (which, asgenerally known, is characterized by strands, each made of two twistedwires) a coupler-isuch as that illustrated in Fig. 6 is employed,.thesame being designated '10. It .is shown as an elongated plate havingterminal eyes .11 and intermediate eyes 12 The tightener 1 is adaptedfor use, without change, with barbed wire.

While I have described the present preferred embodiment of my invention,it will be understood that such modifications and changesmay be made ascome within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A wire tightener comprising a plate, two hooks extending laterally inthe same general direction therefrom, one being located at each end ofthe plate, each hook being reversed with respect to theother and theterminal of the hook beingsubstantially in the plane of the longitudinalaxis of the plate, the edge of the hook remote from the plate beinginclined outwardly from the plate toward the open end of the hookthereby to serve as a cam for deflecting a portion of a wire engagedtherewith outwardly as the plate is turned in its own plane in anappropriate direction about its longitudinal center, and studs carriedby and extending from the plate in substantially the same direction asthe hooks, each stud being located adjacent the open end of one of saidhooks, the studs having heads spaced from the plate a distance somewhatless than the aforesaid outer edges of the hooks.

2. A wire tightener comprising a substantially parallelogrammic plate,two books integral with the plate and extending. laterally therefrom inthe same direction'and at right angles to the plane and longitudinaledges of the plate, one book being located at each end of the plate,each hook being reversed with respect to the other and the terminal ofthe hook being substantially in the plane of the longitudinal axis ofthe plate, the edge of. the hook remote from the plate being inclinedoutwardly from the plate toward the open end of the hook thereby toserve as a cam for deflecting a portion of a wire engaged therewithoutwardly as the plate is turned in its own plane in an appropriatedirection about its longitudinal center, and studs carried by andextending from the side of the plate in substantially the same directionas the hooks, each stud being located adjacent the open end of one ofsaid hooks, the studs having heads spaced from the plate a distancesomewhat less than the aforesaid outer edges of the hooks.

3. A wire tightener comprising a body portion consisting of a fiatsubstantially rectangular metal plate,

.twoidentical wire receiving hooks integral with thevbody portion andextending laterally therefrom in the same general direction, one locatedat each end of the body portion and disposed transversely thereof, eachhook being reversed with respect to the other and having its closed endapproximately'in the plane of one side edge of the bodyportion and itsopen end spaced inwardly a substantial distance from the plane of theopposite edge, and two wire engaging members rigidly connected to andextending laterally from the body portion in the same direc- .tion asthe hooksand spaced apart lengthwise of the body portion with the memberadjacent each hook located on the opposite side of the longitudinal axisof the body portion from said hook.

References Cited in the file of this patent

